Superior strategy in entrepreneurial settings: Thinking, doing, and the logic of opportunity

Abstract

Our purpose is to develop a perspective on how executives form superior strategies in entrepreneurial settings. Understanding how executives achieve such strategies is theoretically intriguing because it pushes beyond the boundary conditions of the traditional strategic logics of position and leverage to the less-understood opportunity logic where advantage is precarious and often short-lived. Understanding how executives form superior strategies in entrepreneurial settings is also practically relevant. Strategically successful firms in these settings like Apple, Facebook, and Dropbox are primary motors for economic growth, but their strategists are challenged by the “high velocity” of their markets and opportunities. Our perspective combines two intertwined themes: (1) broad view of the strategic playing field enabling better visibility and understanding of opportunities (thinking) and (2) action within structures organized at the “edge of chaos” enabling flexible yet efficient capture of opportunities (doing). We describe these themes and opportunity logic and then contrast them with traditional strategic logics like positioning and resource leverage.